Tom, You're Out of Touch (Please Vote!)

After getting in touch with several companions, Percy and Harry laid out their theory in full.

Wood, who was in the same squad, didn't waste any time after hearing them. He immediately hurried to the Common Room to meet up with the others.

After discussing it, the two decided that Wood would first redeem a piece of instance-exclusive equipment, then give it to Harry's squad so they could try it out when they entered the instance the next day.

They wanted to see whether, as they suspected, the equipment could really be shared and taken into the instance.

The main reason they had Wood redeem it first was that his score in [Despair Town] was higher. He had 253 points, just enough to redeem two instance items.

With everyone watching, Wood then redeemed a [Blessed Fire Axe] on the spot.

The way it appeared was astonishing, too. As soon as Wood selected his reward, a rift opened in the empty space in front of him, and an axe dropped out of nowhere, landing right in his hand.

He weighed it in his hand and confirmed it was no different from the one in [Despair Town]. Then he passed it to Harry. "Here. Whether we can successfully conquer [Despair Town] from now on depends on this test."

After taking the axe, Harry made a show of warily checking his surroundings. Only after confirming that no strange dog had suddenly appeared to tell him he couldn't do this did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"If this really works, you'll have helped us a lot!" Harry clutched the axe excitedly. The New Instance had been putting them through the wringer for nearly a month. After so long without anyone managing to clear it, everyone was starting to lose hope.

"Don't focus all